43,000 ‘Ghost Workers’ Uncovered in Nigerian Security Agencies Account

The Head of the Continuous Audit team of the Federal Government, Mohammed Dikwa, on Tuesday said that N50billion has been saved so far through the audit of security agencies payroll in Nigeria.

Mr. Dikwa said this in Abuja at a meeting between the Continuous Audit team, Minister of Finance and Heads of Para-Military agencies.

President Buhari had set up the Continuous Audit team to look into the payroll of all Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The team had already embarked on the audit of the

Military payroll and enrolling them on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

“Since we started the Continuous Audit programme, we have saved about N50 billion and over 43,000 ghost workers have been removed from the payroll of the federal government.

“And as we go on, we are very sure that we will continue to reduce the cost of federal government payroll. Please note the cost is not related to ghost workers alone but with allowances which we believe have to be trimmed down so that we can manage the cost of governance," he said.

Dikwa said officers from the account departments of all the para-militray agencies were currently undergoing training on IPPIS and the Government Management Information System (GIFMIS).

He said the plan was to have all the agencies enrolled on the IPPIS and GIFMIS at the end of the month once the training was completed, to further save Billions to be used for all Nigerians.